The General Assembly wants you to believe these licenses keep us safe, said Groo. “That’s not true,” he asserts. “James Madison wrote that government can never be just, and property can never be safe, if ‘arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny to part of its citizens the free use of their faculties and free choice of their occupations.’”

“You have the right to work and earn an income without burdensome restrictions on your profession of choice, and I value your right to keep 100% of the fruits of that labor,” he said. “Help me get elected and I will work to eliminate every unjust, unnecessary state licensing requirement that really just needs to go away.”

We are excited to be accepting applications for the temporary, paid position of Public Relations Coordinator! Qualified applicants will be able to successfully increase campaign visibility, secure candidate interviews, and draw statewide attention to our most competitive and unique races. Applicants should also be prepared to share their knowledge with volunteers to help ensure the LPNC’s continued progress in presenting and promoting superior political candidates.

The position will likely require a commitment of 10-20 hours weekly and will last until the end of the election cycle. If this sounds like the job for you, email your resume to PRcandidate@LPNC.org. Resumes will be accepted until Friday, 9-14-2018, at midnight.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, enforces immigration laws inside the country. It was established in 2003 under the Department of Homeland Security. The federal government deported illegal immigrants before that, but it was done under the federal Department of Justice.

Over time, taxpayers have had to foot the bill for this wave of deportation in the wake of 9/11. The immigration enforcement budget has grown since then and exceeds the budgets of all federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined. We can maintain the ability to deport serious criminals and national security threats without ICE.

I am the only candidate for Congress in District 9 who proposes to eliminate ICE and end the aggressive and unconstitutional tactics they employ.

It’s hard for the average voter to consider what actual threats we face. Not every violation of immigration law is a criminal offense. Our intolerance of civil violations has increased. Yet, there is no evidence the immigrant population is committing crimes at a greater rate than the general population.

The fear of immigrants is out of proportion to the facts. We know that the U.S. has the largest per capita incarceration rate in the world. It’s fair to ask if our country is seeking to blame groups like immigrants for the ills of our society.

Thirty-three Libertarian candidates for the General Assembly pledged today to support a nonpartisan redistricting process if elected. “Like the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians, we believe that voting maps should be drawn in a fair and impartial way that protects the freedom of voters to hold their government accountable and to have a say in who represents them,” the candidates said in a statement.

The platform of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina calls for “a redistricting process conducted by an independent, nonpartisan agency for all local, state, and federal districts. The process should be open and transparent. It should involve significant public input with the opportunity for citizens to weigh in on proposed district maps.”